The Spring of our Reunion

The grip on Byeol's shoulder was gentle but it felt as if the person thought he was an illusion and he would fade away if they took off their hand.

"Y-Yoon Byeol? Right?"

Byeol examined the person; Straight black hair, bright big eyes, a charming face, and the detail that made him finally realize who they were, the mole on the middle of their right cheek.

"Park Eunchae!" he almost lost all strength on his body right there and then but the impulse to hug her was stronger.

Between their embrace, weirdly, he heard faint whispers of people that stopped to witness the scene. Byeol came to the conclusion that was inevitable and decided to ignore.

"I can't believe it's really you! You look so… Pretty?" Eunchae laughed while slowly parting from their embrace.

Byeol was speechless, it was almost ironic of her, saying this when she was the one who looked dashing.

The Park Eunchae in his memories was a disheveled girl who couldn't care less about what she wore, how she looked, or even how she smelled. In front of him was an entirely different version of her.

She had a more mature aura around her and the mole on her cheek was more apparent than before, as if she used eyeliner to make it darker, and her full lips tinted a light shade of red.

As the thoughts ran wildly inside Byeol's head, he started to feel something strange.

Right in the middle of his stomach, a warm feeling squirmed inside. Byeol wondered if he really had eaten too fast that morning.

"Please, you're saying that? You look so pretty now! Where did that little tomboy go?" Byeol laughed, trying to ignore her hand touching his own, "ah… I was going crazy without you guys back home, I can't believe I'm finally here, this feels like a dream!"

Eunchae waved to the two other girls who were with her before, amiably dismissing them. Byeol bowed his head at them with a smile on his face.

"Were those your friends?" he asked.

"Yeah! You have to meet them, they are incredible. Actually, I think this place is filled with the nicest people. At first I thought everyone would act weird because I'm not from Seoul, but strangely, people just gathered around me and Hyunsik when we were hanging out so we ended up making a lot of friends!" she said as she started guiding him inside the school.

Those two girls, the one who looked very serious is Naeun and the other who had that pretty smile is Somin, my girlfriend," she chuckled

Byeol found the last remark strange. But he figured Eunchae was probably fooling around, she used to say the same about other girls when they were younger.

"Damn, you have the same vibe as I remember but you're so different now, huh?" Eunchae remarked.

Byeol laughed, "I haven't changed that much, come on."

"Are you kidding? You're taller than me now, and your eyes are so pretty and round! Also, have you been working out?"

Byeol couldn't help but be affected by Eunchae's excitement, he responded instantly despite the slight embarrassment from the compliments, "I joined the football team right after Hyunsik left, I needed to occupy my mind or else I'd go crazy! Oh, and my mom started selling homemade meals around the neighborhood so I was the one to deliver them."

He was about to ask how Eunchae had spent the last few years, but a sudden thought made him reconsider, "Is Hyunsik coming early too? It would be better if we catched up altogether!"

As they were getting up the stairs, Byeol noticed that Eunchae's expressions changed the same instant he asked about their friend.

But just as her weird expression came, it went right away, being replaced by a cheerful smile, "Yeah! He's usually as early as we are right now. I have to say though... since the end of last year, he has been kind of closed off. Studying most of the time, you know? To be honest, I think it's because he started losing hope of seeing you again. Look at you, such an important person in other people's lives~" she playfully bumped shoulders with him.

"Why, of course, who can live their lives without me? I can't even begin to fathom how you guys survived all these years!" Byeol puffed his chest with a fabricated confidence.

As the two of them began to turn into the second year's corridor, a boy, a little taller than Byeol, was already standing by a door.

The boy's sharp eyes stared at them almost in shock, and in a split second, he came at a fast pace in their direction, but not desperately enough to lose the poised and charming aura he emitted.

Inches away, Byeol could already recognize who the person was. Of course, since he spent his whole childhood with that guy.

"Hyun—!" Byeol was abruptly embraced and Hyunsik buried his head in Byeol's nape.

By their side, Eunchae's face almost cracked. She had never once got a hug like that from Hyunsik!

She fought through the jealousy though, knowing something that the younger one still didn't.

After a prolonged moment of silence and hugs, Eunchae protested, "Hey! Am I invisible? You guys can be all lovey-dovey when I'm not here, ok?"

Even though he couldn't see, Byeol could feel that they were being curiously watched by other students. Unable to speak from the shock and embarrassment, Byeol felt his face burning up and his whole body started to sweat.

If it weren't for a teacher who was just arriving, telling them not to make such a fuss at the corridor, they would probably have stayed like that for an even longer time.

After bowing to the teacher, Hyunsik turned all his attention to Byeol and tried to form a phrase, "I've missed—"

"Yes, yes, I missed you too, cried all day and night, but can we please go somewhere else, we are literally stopping the whole flow of people here!" Byeol cried, still recovering from the sudden wave of heat.

Eunchae laughed at her younger friend's fast words, the fact that he could blush easily did not change.

"Yeah, let's go!" she said

After finally putting their bags on their respective classrooms the three of them began to walk around the school to familiarize Byeol with the place.

The early spring breeze flowed gently as they catched up, sometimes laughing and sometimes listening carefully to one another with serious faces.

That chat held the same feeling of trust and security that they all felt a few years back, but now, with more years of experience, it wasn't all smiles.

Byeol learned that Hyunsik's parents had become more strict, to the point of wanting him to enroll in a more prestigious and serious school instead of the one they were now. But Hyunsik held his ground since he knew that was the school Byeol was bound to come to once he moved to Seoul.

Eunchae was going through a tough time figuring out what she wanted to do when she graduates as well as other family problems she chose not to speak about and only brushed it off saying her parents were being assholes.

As for Byeol, he couldn't entirely sympathize with them. Besides the usual confusion and tumults of growing up, his life had not been that turbulent until then, at least that he could remember.

"Oh, that's right, how did you know I was coming this year? You were already in the second year's corridor and all," Byeol asked Hyunsik.

Eunchae found the question hilarious and butted in, "Oh, you don't understand, this guy over here," she placed her hand on Hyunsik's back, "at the beginning of every semester he is there, on hopes of you arriving and only when he is positively and entirely certain you're not coming, he stops and goes straight to his class."

Hyunsik gave Eunchae a stern stare, and then lifted his hand to his face, embarrassed.

Byeol was flattered, "I missed you a lot too," he gave his friend an amiable smile.

Hyunsik seemed to relax. He corresponded with a grin and patted Byeol's head.

Byeol blinked twice and fought the strange feeling of butterflies in his stomach. He was impressed at how charming Hyunsik had become, and thought his friend should be very popular among the girls. "Wow, Hyunsik… If I didn't know you, I'd probably have fallen for you just now," he mused.

Surprisingly, once those words left his mouth, Hyunsik and Eunchae went silent and their expression could almost be considered troubled.

"...Wait, I mean if I was a girl, you know, only if I was a girl!"

There was another moment of silence, then they burst out laughing.

"Oh, come on, were you guys playing with me?" Byeol complained, but laughed along anyway.

Eunchae looked at the slim watch on her right wrist. "Wow, time went by so fast… I really missed this feeling," she smiled. "Let's go to our classes, guys."

Byeol and Hyunsik looked to one another, then to Eunchae.

"Hey, don't you guys dare make those puppy eyes! Especially you, Hwang Hyunsik, we are seniors now, we should set an example here!" Eunchae said. "C'mon, c'mon…"